Dark Chocolate Cherry Walnut Truffles

February 5, 2012Angela (Oh She Glows)

by Angela (Oh She Glows) on February 5, 2012

I was at Bulk Barn last week to pick up hemp seeds and I left with various red and pink mini cupcake liners, dried cherries, red heart tins, hearts on a stick, and V-Day heart tags. You know, baking “construction materials”. Gag me. I tell ya, I embarrass myself sometimes. Oh, and I forgot the hemp seeds.

I don’t even remember what I wanted hemp for anyways.

It’s all about the dried tart cherries right now. They taste like fruit roll-ups…but better.

I rarely think to pair cherries and chocolate throughout the year, but once February hits, it’s all I can think about. I also like to add a touch of almond extract to take cherry recipes over the top. Almond extract brings me back to my childhood when I used to eat cherry almond icebox cookies around the holidays. There’s just something about the scent that is so comforting to me.

I decided to make a cherry truffle based off my Chocolate Macaroon truffles. The best part is you can freeze the truffles ahead of time. The worst part is, they taste best straight from the freezer.

So if you are like me and think, “oh if I put them in the freezer I won’t eat them all!”… think again. I’m not a miracle worker here.

A freezer will not stand in the way of a girl and her truffles! I wouldn’t stand for it.

[Despite my best efforts to be a food stylist, I just noticed the chocolate chips and cherries look a bit like rodent droppings on the dinner table. Now that’s romantic!]

Dark Chocolate Cherry Walnut Truffles

Vegan, grain-free

By Angela Liddon

Similar to my Chocolate Macaroon Truffles, but with a slight tart cherry flavour, hint of almond extract, and walnut crunch. To make the truffles, I soaked and blended dried tart cherries with a bit of sweetener (my immersion blender mini processor worked great for this) and folded it into the truffle mixture with a touch of almond extract. To dress them up for Valentine’s Day, roll the truffles in pink-dyed shredded coconut. Be sure to use a great tasting chocolate here for the best outcome.

Yield23-24 truffles

Prep time20 Minutes

Cook time10 Minutes

Chill time2 hours

Total time30 Minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup walnut halves, finely chopped and toasted

1 cup dried tart cherries

2 tbsp agave nectar (or other liquid sweetener)

1.5 cups of your favourite vegan chocolate chips

3/4 cup full-fat coconut milk (use the cream from the top of the can)

1/4-1/2 tsp kosher salt, to taste (I used 1/2 tsp)

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/2 cup + 2 tbsp unsweetened shredded coconut

12 drops red food colouring

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325F and toast the chopped walnuts for 12 minutes. Set aside.

Meanwhile, soak the cherries in a bowl of water for about 10 minutes. Drain and add to food processor (or mini immersion processor like I used) along with 2 tbsp agave or other sweetener. Process until finely chopped.

In a medium-sized pot, heat the chocolate chips over low heat, stirring as necessary. Add in the coconut milk and stir well. Add toasted walnuts, cherry mixture, and almond extract. Stir again until combined. Now add the kosher salt to taste. The salt should give the sweetness a bit of a pop. Add a touch more sweetener if necessary to achieve your desired taste.

Spoon the truffle mixture into a bowl and place in the freezer, uncovered, for 90 minutes, stirring every half hour. After 90 mins, stir again and transfer bowl to the fridge for another 20 minutes until chocolate is firm and workable.

In a small bowl, mix together the coconut and food colouring until pink. When the truffle mixture is firm enough to handle, roll into small balls (you can use wet fingers if necessary- it will be very sticky!) and then roll into coconut mixture until you have about 23 balls. Store in an air-tight container in the freezer or fridge (they will become very soft at room temperature). They should keep for a couple weeks in the freezer in an air-tight container. I like to place mine in a baggy first, then in a container, to prevent freezer burn.

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Pack them up in a heart-shaped tin and you have yourself a bite-sized Valentine’s Day gift.

YUM. I love dried cherries; I really should get some so I can make some granola and these truffles! Your photos look fabulous, as always, even with the ‘rodent droppings’! ;) I always come out of a store with a billion things for baking instead of what I actually need, too; you’re not alone!

Oh Bulk Barn, how I miss thee! I used to go to the one in Moncton all the time, next to the Superstore. Even though people love a good bargain here in the Netherlands, there are no bulk stores. My husband claims that they would not work here cause people might be tempted to take way more than they should. Ha!

Angela, I’m so glad that the feed to your blog has been changed and the full post shows up in my Reader. My confession is that I subscribe to tons of blogs and often, if it’s just a summary, I won’t click through to read if I don’t have the time. Now I can read your full posts and I thank you!

Aw Ange to think you forgot the hemp seeds haha! I love the styling of these photographs even if those raisins look like poop, the heart cases are so sweet and appropriate. Bet these bad boys taste amazing, will you be my valentine?!

Hahahaaaa! This one had me dying: the cherries and chocolate chips look a bit like rodent droppings! LMAO!

But you’re right…my 2 bunnies sure do drop thinks that look like those cherries. Only I doubt they taste half as good – and I am NOT gonna try and find out LOL! I think I’ll stick to this recipe instead.

LOL about the rodent droppings!!! I’m the same way when I go into Bulk Barn – I usually come out with everything BUT the thing I went in for. I swear, it took me 4 trips to remember to get cinnamon sticks!! These sound delicious Ange, and like you said, who really needs hemp seeds when you’ve got gorgeous baking construction materials?! ;)

Just when I thought you couldn’t possibly come out with something more scrumptious…..wow! They look delicious! I know what I’m making tonight for the kids! :-)
PS – Your Gingerbread cake with buttercream frosting is a huge hit! They ask for it all the time!
<3

Hey Faith! I just used the regular food colouring for this, but just placed an order this weekend for an all natural one: http://www.chocolatecraftkits.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=74_76 I’ll be sure to report how I like it if you are interested!

These sound incredible! I also love almond extract. What is it about it that’s so comforting? Every time I use it, I contemplate wearing it as a perfume. I’m only half serious, but I definitely take a moment to breathe in that wonderful scent.

You are so cute and funny! Honestly, the chocolate chips and cherries don’t look like rodent droppings. I was just thinking what a great photographer you are and how I can’t wait to make these. So yummy! I also try to freeze my baked good so I won’t eat them and often find them WAY better frozen which is a BIG problem. Life is short- so enjoying a truffle here and there is not going to kill us!

Those are so cute! I absolutely love the combination of cherries and chocolate. I wonder if I could try doing a similar thing with chocolate and candied orange peel (one of my favorite dark chocolate bars has candied orange peel in it).

Hi! These look fantastic. Do you think they’d be shelf-stable at room temperature for 2 days? I’d love to send some to my friend, but not if they wouldn’t be edible by the time she received them! Thanks for your blog, your recipes are fantastic.

Haha, you crack me up! I never would have thought of the droppings, but once you said it, I couldn’t stop giggling to myself. One of these days I will grow out of toilet jokes being funny. But not today.

On a different note, I can’t believe there were so few ingredients in a recipe that looks so sophisticated. Nice work!

Im in love with these organic chips I buy from Ontario Natural Food Coop (its their brand), but it’s bought in bulk and you have to sign up for a membership to be able to buy from them. Probably not helpful I know!

I also like Cocoa Camino chocolate chips in the red bag but they are quite expensive :\

so it’s a true “balls(truffleballs)-to-the-wall-exercise” if you end up making it a kid-friendly activity?! :D hey, sometimes those are just sO MUCH FUN when you get so messy and dirty with kitchen ingredient with kids! – definitely have to be not-so-neat-and-particular in the kitchen if you play with cocoa or flour or powdered sugar – or i guess anything baking hehe

Is there really anything better than cherries and chocolate? Not in my world. I would say I am going to make these, but I don’t know if I can have enough will power to get myself to the truffle part. These look amazing and I just love the flavor profile. Thanks for posting this awesome recipe.

Oh yum, I’ve made something sort of like these before, but never thought to use coconut milk. What a brilliant idea! I can’t wait to try these, especially for my lovely hubby for Valentine’s Day… if they last that long. I have a feeling these will become my little treat for myself instead of for him. Thanks for the great recipe Angela!

I can’t wait to try these! I made the Chocolate Macaroon truffles for my family for Christmas and they absolutely loved them. Then I made them a week later for my friend’s New Year’s Eve party. This time I doubled the batch and then divided it in thirds. I added the coconut to 1/3 and rolled them in coconut, left 1/3 plain chocolate and rolled them in crushed candy canes and added peanutbutter to the last 1/3 which I rolled in cocoa powder. They were a huge success!!!

Love the tins! I cannot tell you how many times I have gone to the store for something and gotten carried away with another creation and then totally forgotten the original something!!! Great recipe, as usual :)

I was thinking what a beautiful job you did arranging everything for your photos when you said “Rodent droppings,” I looked up at the photo and burst out laughing! Thanks for the great recipe! I always enjoy your posts!

Ok. I see what’s going on here. I love your truffles in general and I convince myself that each time will be different when you have a different flavor and each time it’s not. I eat them. I eat them all. Darn you Valentine’s Day and your deliciously festive dried red cherries that would make such amazing truffles! That’s it, I’m goin’ in!

HAVE to make these!! But I admit that I likely won’t be able to give these up as a gift… they look way too good… of course I’m craving chocolate right now… AND almond just makes it that much better. But I don’t have the ingredients right now. *sigh* (think I’ll go eat a few choc. chips in the meantime).

These look delicious, but you should try using beet juice for coloring instead of the artificial food coloring – beet juice tend to brown when cooking but I imagine it stays nice and bright if you use it without cooking like here. Haven’t tried, and probably won’t do it myself (too lazy to juice beets for this purpose), but if you do, let me know!!

haha I wouldn’t have thought they looked like droppings… until you mentioned it. Meh, there are worse things. Like your poo cupcakes. That was too great.
Bulk barn is very distracting. I usually have to do a little pep talk before I walk in – ‘You need chia seeds, raisins, and 4 protein bars. That is it. You don’t need flour, or coconut, or any more dried fruit. In, out, done.’ I could spend hours filling up my basket with unnecessary items!

Hi Angela! I have a funny story. Years ago my sister sent me a champagne truffle cake which had a dozen glorious champagne truffles on top. I ate them all, of course, not once thinking of my husband. However, I stuck the cake in the freezer, thinking after making a pig of myself over the truffles, I won’t eat the cake until we can enjoy it together. Well, didn’t I go in there every day with my sharpest knife, and hack off chunks of that cake until it was all gone! Groan! Anyway, I got a good laugh from your commentary. A freezer doesn’t stand a chance!

OK I made these for Valentine’s Day, and they are AMAZING. Substitutions: I used non-vegan chocolate chips, honey instead of agave, and didn’t use the food dye. They were the best truffles I’ve ever eaten. Thanks, Oh She Glows! :)

Hi Angela! I just wanted to let you know that I made these last night as a Valentine’s Day gift for my boyfriend. They were so easy to make and tasted AMAZING. It’s taking all of my will power not to eat every one of them before I give them to him tomorrow. I placed them in Valentine’s themed mini-muffin liners just as you did….. what a great idea!!

You are so inspirational! I am not very gifted in the kitchen, but your blog and all of your fabulous recipes have sparked a love for cooking/baking inside of me that I never knew I had. Thank you for everything you do!! :)

these truffles turned out awesome! i made the truffle mixture and refrigerated it overnight. i assembled the truffles the next day. i worked with small batches of the mixture, keeping the remainder of the mixture in the fridge. i formed about 6 truffles, washed and dried my hands, and then rolled them in coconut. this helped tremendously with keeping my hands as clean as possible. each truffle went into a paper, like Angela did, which helped with transporting them. The truffles were frozen overnight. i rolled some in pink coconut and some in cacao powder. they were a hit with coworkers and friends.

one suggestion: i wish the recipe had measurements in weight, not volume. my bulk barn sells walnut pieces, which i used to reduce the prep time. it took some experimenting to get the walnut ratio correct.

Angela! After reading this post last week I was bitten by the cooking bug and HAD to make these for my boyfriend this Valentine’s Day. I am happy to report that he LOVED them! I unfortunately couldn’t follow your exact recipe as he ditests coconut(so sad!) BUT i swapped cherries for grapefruit and drizzled white chocolate over the top ! Anyways thanks again for your inspiring posts!